COMPARISON OF TWO ONLINE IMAGE EDITORS

I welcomed this assignment, as I have not done a lot a photo editing before other than do basic clean ups, cropping, rotating, sizing, contrast, hue, and saturation changes. The apps I explored here opened doors to far more innovative ways of artistically manipulating my pictures. I experimented with two different applications, Photobucket, which worked instantly, and a trial download of Adobe Photoshop Elements 12, which actually took forever and failed twice before completing the download. Some of the other editors had no security platforms in place that I could see, so I got out of them pretty quickly.

photobucket_logo.png

This software was among the most user-friendly I have ever encountered. I selected a photo I had taken of my granddaughter, which I had entitled thisiswhatfallfeelslike (tiwhffl).

Here's the original:

tiwffloriginal.jpg

The first thing I did was to crop the photo and try out the "high res" option:

tiwfflhighdefphotobucket.png

Next, I added a frame and supersaturation effects:

,

tiwfflphotobucketdeepersaturation.png

Here's the "Boardwalk" effect applied (kind of "Instagrammy" feeling):

tiwfflphotobucketeffectsboardwalk.png

Finally, I got the picture I liked the most by applying the "Ventura" effect:

thisiswhatfallfeelslikeventuraeffect.png

Photoshop_icon.png

Now, it was time to compare this very simple application to far more heavy duty Photoshop Elements 12. Like the old Photoshop, you have to begin by going to File, then Open, then pull the image from your hard drive. I set the screen on EXPERT mode, as this will show all possible options for image manipulation:

photshopscreenexpert.png

In the fX "Effect" function, shown here, I had a choice of lots of lovely artistic effects. Here's the "film grain" FILTER:

photoshopfilmgraineffect.png

Here's the "faded photo" EFFECT:

photoshopfadedphotoeffect.png

So, what's the verdict??

Criteria			Photobucket	Photshop Elements 12
Tool Selection			Just right for fun, quick editing.	More options and more skill required.
Interface			Super intuitive.	I had to watch a tutorial to use it properly.
Speed			Instantly available after registration.	Crashed on first download attempt. Humongous file (over 2gigs), took forever to load, but fast after that.
Export Options			FB, Twitter, Email,eBay, Public or Private, HTML embed in blog option nice extra.	Private or public option, Flickr, Twitter, SmugMug, FB
Flash/HTML			Flash	HTML
Max File Size			Up to 30MB for print	30,000 x 30,000 for Editing
Max Resolution			1024 X768	1024 x 768
Cost			Free	Free 30 day trial.
Layers			Yes	Yes
Effects			More than adequate number for casual editing.	The Expert Screen View gave all the expected Photoshop elements and then some. For professional level photo editing, this would be the way to go.
Killer feature			I really liked the different filter choices. They were not too crazy looking and gave nice effects.	I liked the Collage feature. Also the “spot healer” function is a whole lot better than the old “clone” function.